Sandford Borins

Public Representations explores how popular screen stories represent, and interact with, politics, governance, and the public sphere. It analyses a selection of recent films and broadcast, cable, and streaming series from the US and the UK, as well as a multi-decade survey of comparable Canadian films and series. Drawing on a wide range of interdisciplinary scholarship and popular media commentary, Public Representations considers questions of narrative representation, political agency, and conditions of screen story production as they intersect with race and gender. Using a rich array of paratexts, including online and legacy media reviews, interviews, news reports and feature coverage, as well as metrics such as production budgets, box office figures, and awards, Public Representations traces the ways in which these screen stories function as frames of reference, and sites of contestation, for the most urgent issues within the contemporary public sphere.

This book challenges the widely-held belief that popular narratives about business are invariably critical. It develops a more nuanced analytic model of private sector narrative and applies it to 63 recent narrative texts (movies, histories, biographies) produced in the US dealing with three major industries: information technology, automobile manufacturing, and financial trading. It identifies recurring patterns to compare sectors and to analyze their implications. Negotiating Business Narratives appeals to academics and practitioners interested in business and society, strategic management, and contemporary literature and films about business.

Governing Fables: Learning from Public Sector Narratives advocates the importance of narrative for public servants, exemplifies it with a rigorously selected and analyzed set of narratives, and imparts narrative skills politicians and public servants need in their careers. Governing Fables turns to narratology, the inter-disciplinary study of narrative, for a conceptual framework that is applied to a set of narratives engaging life within public organizations, focusing on works produced during the last twenty-five years in the US and UK. The genres discussed include British government narratives inspired by and reacting to Yes Minister, British appeasement narratives, American political narratives, the Cuban Missile Crisis narrative, jury decision-making narratives, and heroic teacher narratives. In each genre lessons are presented regarding both effective management and essential narrative skills.Governing Fables is intended for public management and political science scholars and practitioners interested in leadership and management, as well as readers drawn to the political subject matter and to the genre of political films, novels, and television series.

Governing Fables: Learning from Public Sector Narratives advocates the importance of narrative for public servants, exemplifies it with a rigorously selected and analyzed set of narratives, and imparts narrative skills politicians and public servants need in their careers. Governing Fables turns to narratology, the inter-disciplinary study of narrative, for a conceptual framework that is applied to a set of narratives engaging life within public organizations, focusing on works produced during the last twenty-five years in the US and UK. The genres discussed include British government narratives inspired by and reacting to Yes Minister, British appeasement narratives, American political narratives, the Cuban Missile Crisis narrative, jury decision-making narratives, and heroic teacher narratives. In each genre lessons are presented regarding both effective management and essential narrative skills.Governing Fables is intended for public management and political science scholars and practitioners interested in leadership and management, as well as readers drawn to the political subject matter and to the genre of political films, novels, and television series.

The impact of information technology (IT) on government in the last five years has been profound. Using the governments of Canada and Ontario (both recognized as international leaders in the use of IT) as case studies, Digital State at the Leading Edge is the first attempt to take a comprehensive view of the impact of IT upon the whole of government, including politics and campaigning, public consultation, service delivery, knowledge management, and procurement. Using the concepts of channel choice, procurement market analysis, organizational integration, and digital leadership, this study explores the inter-relationships among all these aspects of the application of IT to government and politics. The authors seek to understand how IT is transforming government and what the nature of that transformation is. In the process, they offer an explanation of Canada's relative success, and conclude with practical advice to politicians and public servants about how to manage IT in government more effectively. Based on new and original research undertaken over the last five years, the findings of this intriguing study will be of interest to those studying or working in the fields of public administration, political science, and information technology.

Allan Blakeney has been identified with Saskatchewan politics and government for forty years as a public servant, cabinet minister, premier, and leader of the opposition. A Rhodes scholar with an intellectual's perspective on governing, Blakeney brings a unique and valuable perspective to this study of political management. Presented in the form of a dialogue between the authors, the book provides a thorough examination of the roles of politicians and public servants and techniques of management in Westminster systems. What emerges is a sophisticated philosophy of statecraft that recognizes both politics and management, and underlines the importance of balancing the two. First published in 1992, Political Management in Canada is now available in a revised and updated edition. A new appendix shows how the book can complement the major political science and public administration texts currently in use in Canada.

Allan Blakeney has been identified with Saskatchewan politics and government for forty years as a public servant, cabinet minister, premier, and leader of the opposition. A Rhodes scholar with an intellectual's perspective on governing, Blakeney brings a unique and valuable perspective to this study of political management. Presented in the form of a dialogue between the authors, the book provides a thorough examination of the roles of politicians and public servants and techniques of management in Westminster systems. What emerges is a sophisticated philosophy of statecraft that recognizes both politics and management, and underlines the importance of balancing the two. First published in 1992, Political Management in Canada is now available in a revised and updated edition. A new appendix shows how the book can complement the major political science and public administration texts currently in use in Canada.